Flyers face tough test against balanced Blues

VOORHEES – It’s been more than two years since the Flyers played the St. Louis Blues, so long that Scott Hartnell employed a few of his buddies in the Western Conference for scouting help.

“They said they’re big, they’re physical, they play like a team,” Hartnell reported back. “I think they manage the puck really well. They never turn the puck over.”

Check the NHL standings for confirmation and ... yup, the Blues are the best team in the NHL with 101 points. They’re a different beast than that which the Flyers have beaten in recent games.

The Blues are third in the league averaging 3.16 goals per game, yet they don’t have one person in the top 30 in the league in scoring. Sounds like Sean Couturier’s shutdown line may have multiple assignments against a deep team that has scoring threats on every line.

“They’re well balanced,” Couturier said. “I think they have three or four lines they can roll and be dangerous. As a team, we’ll have to be ready and be ready to compete.”

Couturier’s unit has been the Flyers’ defensive weapon, but coach Craig Berube wants all his lines to play good defense. After all, everyone will have to play that side of the game if the Flyers are going to make the playoffs and be successful.

“You can’t have any people not showing up and competing hard,” Berube said. “Any team, you can’t have that.”

Berube and his players are trying the tough-love approach this weekend. Even though the Flyers beat the Dallas Stars 4-2 Thursday, the coach said after the game that the effort wasn’t good enough.

Through four straight wins, tying a season high, the Flyers are trying to improve.

If they can beat St. Louis and former Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock, they’ll see it as another step in the right direction. If they win today, it will likely be because they stepped up their effort from Thursday.

“The way they play, they’re tough to play against,” Jake Voracek said.

“They’re a big, physical team. They play good defense under Hitch. We’ll have to battle a lot harder than we did (Thursday) to win.”

They’ll have to play more responsible team defense, too. Jamie Benn, the Stars’ captain, controlled the pace of the game Thursday on a top heavy Dallas team with only one real big threat of a scoring line.

The Blues have three or four. It might be a busy afternoon for goalie Steve Mason.

“They don’t have that one player that’s gonna put up points every night, but they have a committee of players that come to compete every single game,” Mason said.

“That makes it extremely difficult to play against them. They have 100 points already. They’re gonna be well-suited for a long playoff drive. This is gonna be a good test for us.”

MacDonald getting comfortable

Now that he’s played seven games in a Flyers uniform, Andrew MacDonald is starting to get the hang of things in Philadelphia.

Five of those seven games were wins, which is among the first differences between the Flyers and his old team, the New York Islanders.

“Obviously everything’s a lot better when you’re winning,” said MacDonald, an unrestricted free agent to-be. “It makes a big difference. Any time you’re putting minutes in and you’re winning, you feel like you’re contributing.”

He’s been on a pair with Luke Schenn for the most part and Schenn looks much more comfortable in his game. The two are always communicating the nuances of the game to each other, making MacDonald feel comfortable also in his new team.

“I feel like guys are pretty much all on the same page,” MacDonald said.

“There were times on the Island where we’d play really well and we’d all be on the same page, but it seemed like it was inconsistent.”

Flyers sign Hägg to entry-level deal

A bit ahead of schedule, 2013 second-round pick defenseman Robert Hägg is coming over to North America from his native Sweden.

Hägg, 19, agreed to terms with the Flyers on his entry-level contract and will report to the Adirondack Phantoms Tuesday to play out the final 15 games of the AHL schedule on a tryout.

“He progressed to the point where it sort of came up right before World Juniors that there were some options open up for us,” GM Paul Holmgren said. “We moved forward with it and reached an agreement.”

Don’t expect to see Hägg in a Flyers uniform next season, though. He still has a lot of developing to do.